Something Went Terribly Wrong

Submission 9,491

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

Something Went Terribly Wrong is a catchphrase most commonly used in a series of image macro memes comparing men's fashion of the past to modern men's fashion, showing a side-by-side example of each with the text "something went terribly wrong" underneath, implying the fashion of the past is better. The format first appeared on Facebook in 2016, spreading online over the following years. As the phrase increased in prevalence, it took on more ironic, widespread interpretations beyond fashion. The format is similar to the Gangster vs. Moron meme.

Origin

A possible precursor to the meme is an image of the evolutionary line from ape to human showing man evolving from using tools to sitting hunched at a computer, the text "somewhere, something went terribly wrong" alongside the image. One of the earliest examples of this is the sinz.org^[1] webpage, registered in 1997, which shows the image and quote on its homepage (show below). The image has been remade numerous times.^[2]

On August 11th, 2016, Facebook^[3] page Gentlemen's Club International posted a meme comparing a man from the 1950s on the left, wearing a peacoat and suit and a male fashion model on the right, using the phrase underneath to imply the former is better than the latter (shown below). The post gained over 7,800 shares and 11,000 reactions in roughly six years.

Spread

The image was reposted across Facebook^[4]^[5] many times that year, gaining viral spread. On October 10th, 2016, Instagram^[6] page inesklara posted an image of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in streetwear together compared to an old black-and-white photograph of a couple in more formal attire, gaining over 2,700 likes in six years (shown below).

As the format evolved the phrase saw use in more ironic memes. On November 29th, 2019, Facebook^[8] user The Spectre of Communism used the format to ironically compare 1695 pirate fashion to the 1940s man, gaining over 300 reactions in three years (shown below).

On December 2nd, 2019, Instaram^[9] user sonny_librarian used the meme to ironically compare fashion from 895 to the 1940s, which was reposted by trashcanpaul^[10] in January 2022, gaining over 49,000 likes in a day (shown below, left). On December 21st, 2021, Instagram^[7] user new.incognito.tab posted a meme using the phrase under an ominous image of a large eye floating in blackness, gaining over 21,900 likes in a month (shown below, right).